Thread-cleaner



W. J. KLOTS.

THREAD CLEANER. APPLICATION FILED MAYIS. 1922.

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6 INIZINTOR.

I A TTORNEYS.

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arsaw. 3. KLO'IS, or SCRANTTON, rnnnsr LVANIA, ASSIGNOB. T W. J. JKLO'ESRAW SILK CLEANER (10., INC., A CORPORATION OF DELAW Application filed my13,

foall-wlziom it'may concern: I

- Be it"knownthat'l, VVAL'rEii clear, and exact description,

' The invention of this application, which is a continuation in partofmy application, Se-

rial No. 499,107 filed September 7, 1921, relates to a device forcleaning threads, yarns or the like, and particularly silk thread as itis being wound on a quill or bobbin reparatory to weaving, and thepurpose 0 the invention is to provide a device which will be i positiveits action in catching slubs or slugs, snarls, accumulations of wax, gumand. the like, bad knots, etc., which would show in the woven cloth, andin breaking the, thread at that point, thereby enabling the operatortoremove the imperfect portion of the thread and tie the ends togetherin order to continue theoperation.

This cleaning action is commonly performed by running the thread througha slot of the proper size and the cleaners for this purpose, which haveheretofore been used in the silk industry, have almost universallyconsisted of two separate plates or jaws, one of which is adjustable toand from the other, and which are provided with clamping means to securethem the proper distance apart. These are not satisfactory, however, forthe reason that the vibration of the machines and the exigencies of usein a short time displace the'movable jaw sufiiciently to affect theoperation of the cleaner, and for the further reason that they aresusceptible of being tampered with by the operator after once they havebeen properly adjusted.

Efforts have been made to make cleaning platesof one integral structure,that is, a

single plate having a slot or slit of the proper width therein, butthese have not proved satisfactory for the silk industry. Such platesheretofore tried in the silk industry have been produced by a stampingoperation, a suitable die being used to cut the slit in the plate. Thematerial is therefore of necessity sufiiciently soft and thin to permitsuch an operation, with the result that they have not possessed thesturdiness or accuracy of shape and size of slot requisite for thecareful work required in the silk industry.

' Specification of Letters Patent.

THREAD-0L 5 1922. sa a no. 560,797.

with-the walls of the slot therein joining the face of the plate in asharp right angle. It has common y to round ofl these corners somewhatto avoid been supposed'to be necessary:

Patented aaiy 111.1922.

of very hard steel...'

injury to the thread from running over a sharp corner, with the been atendency for the the slot and pass the thread; and,'indee if the cornerswere not purposely rounded off they have soon become'round due to thesoft character of the material from which the unitary or integralcleaning plates have been made.

To cause the thread to run straight or practically so through the slotwith a minimum of contact with the sharp edges or corners of the plate,my invention also comprehends an improved bracket and thread slubs tosqueeze into guide supporting structure which is ex-' tremely simple andinexpensive in its construction and is 1 easily attachable to the properpart of the winding or other machine, and which serves to properly guidethe thread throu h the slot in the cleaner plate. My inventlon alsoincludes details of construction of the bracket itself, as well asvarious other details of construction as will hereinafter more fullyappear.

I shall now describe the illustrated embodiments of my invention andshall thereafter point out my invention in claims.

Fig. l is a side elevation of a complete assembly of all the elements ofmy invention, illustrating schematically the operation of the cleanerplate;

F ig. 2 is a plan of my improved bracket and cleaner plate;

Fig. 3 is a section of the same taken substantially along the line ofa-a of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a section of the same taken substantially along the line of 66 of Fig. 2;.

Fig. 5 is a plan of the cleaner plate on a larger scale;

Fig. 6 is a section of the plate taken substantially along the line ofcc of Fig. 5 and Fig. 7 is a perspective of an assembly similar to Fig.1, but with a modified form of support for the plate bracket and threadguides.

My improved cleaner plate is made in accordance with the method whichforms the subject matter of my application No. 560,798,

result that there hasthrough without breaking filed May 13,1922. Thestock from which it is made is known in the trade as tire steel, a steelcontaining substantially of 1% of carbon. This stock is secured in stripform of the proper width and substantially of an inch thick, and is thencut in the proper lengths and a re-entrant angle of 90 is cut in oneend, forming the two guide faces 2 and 3. A screw hole 4 and aclearance'hole 5 are then drilled after which the narrow slit or slot 6is milled or sawed along the longitudinal center line of the plate,joining the juncture of the faces 2 and 3 with the clearance hole 5. Thecorners formed by the juncture of the walls of the slit 6 with thecircular wall of opening 5 are then filed away or otherwise removed, asshown at 7 and 8 in Figure 5, to form a V-shaped entrance from theopening 5 into the slot 6, the function of which, will hereinafterappear. The plate is then treated, preferably by a case hardeningprocess, to render it very hard so as to fix the size and configura tionof the slot as it has been accurately formed, following which any slightchange in the width of the slot effected by the heat treatment may becorrected, as with a slight blow of a hammer. It will be observed thatdue to the fact that the slot 6 is sawed into the plate, the cornersformed between the face ofthe plate and the walls of the slot are sharpright angles, and due to the subsequent hardening of the material, thesecorners will remain sharp and will not wear round from use.

The plate, when in use, is held in-a bracket 9 which is secured to asuitable supporting bracket or element 10 which also carries the threadguides. The bracket member 9 is an angle member provided in one arm withan aperture 11 through which suitable securing means, such as a screw12, may be passed to secure the bracket 2 to the bracket 10, also withan aperture l3' which may also receive a screw threaded into thesupporting ele ment 10 to hold the angle bracket against rotation uponthe screw 12. The other arm of the bracket member 9 is provided upon itsouter face with a channel 14 having plain sides in which the cleanerplate 1 may be disposed. If desired a small pin 15 may be disposedwithin the channel to limit the movement of the cleaner plate therein inone direction and thereby act as a positioning member for properlylocating the platewithin the channel. A headed screw 16 passes throughthe hole 4 in the plate and is threaded into the bracket member forremovably securing the cleaner plate within the channel and against thepositioning pin 15. The arm of the bracket member having the channeltherein is provided with a cutout or clearance portion 17 extendinginwardly from the outer end of the arm to a point beyond the waste hole5 when the cleaner plate is in position upon the bracket, so as topermit of the free passage of the material discharged from the wasteaperture and the slot of the cleaner plate.

T'he plate bracket or support 10 also carr1 es two porcelain threadguides 18 and 19, disposed respectively above and below the plate 1 withtheir guide openings accurately aligned with the slot 6. These threadguides may be secured to the bracket member 10 in any suitable way, and,as shown, the screw stem of the upper thread guide 18 screws into athreaded opening in a boss at the top of the bracket 10, while the screwstem of the lower thread guide passes through a hole 20 in the arm ofthe bracket 9 and is threaded into the bracket 10. If this mode ofattachment of the lower thread guide is em-' ployed, it is manifest thatthe opening 13 and the screw therein may be dispensed with. The bracketmember 10 in Fig. 1 is adapted for attachment in the manner shown, to alongitudinal rod 21 on the winding machine.

In the operation of the device, the thread, whlch contains knots, slubs,snarls, accumula-tions of wax, gum etc., is cleaned during itstransference from the bobbin 22 to a rece ving quill or bobbin 23. Onleaving the bobbin 22, the thread 24 passes through the upper threadguide 18, through the slot 6 of the cleaner plate and thence through thelower thread guide 19 and is wound upon the quill 23, the thread guides,as above stated, being so disposed as to minimize the contact of thethread with the edges or corners of the slot 6. As the thread passesthrough the slot 6 of the cleaner plate, any loose fuzz orexcess wax,gum .or oil will be scraped along until it causes the thread to break,when the operator will remove the defective material and tie the cleanends together, and continue the winding operation. Similarly any slub,knot or snarl which will not travel along the thread will be caught andthe thread will be broken. The sharp corners of the slot eliminate anytendency of the defective materials to squeeze into the slot, and thecleaning operation is positive.

Some of the gum or wax will naturally rub off from the thread andaccumulate along the faces of the slot 6. Each threading operation tendsto force these accumulations of gum or wax toward the clearance hole 5.11 starting the operation the operator directs the thread against one orthe other of the converging faces 2, 3, and the tension of the threadcauses it to be drawn into the slot 6, and it is this inward motion ofthe thread which forces the accumulation of wax in the slot 6 toward theclear.- ance hole 5. It will be understood that if the wax is not thusautomatically removed, it soon'becomes of suflicientquantity to efproperthickness.

sufficient tension to cause it to return to the slot 6 as soon as it isreleased, and the guide faces 7 and 8 facilitate this return movement ofthe thread.

I have found that the 45 angle formed by the faces- 2 and 3 with therespective walls of the slot 6 is the proper angle to assure that thethread will be guided into the slot 6 whenever the operator places thethread upon one or the other of these surfaces in starting theoperation. If the angle is more than 45, the thread will be drawn toorapidly along the face toward the slot and will strike the other faceand be broken, while if the angle is less than L59, the thread will notmove quickly enough into the slot and will drag over the guide face andbe injured and often times broken before it reaches the cleaning slot.

I have found that the thickness of substantially Q; of an inch for theplate is the If substantially thinner than this, the two 'aws soon getout of alignment in use, whlle if it is substantially thicker, it putstoo much tension on the thread and will stretch it and affect its valueIt is well understood in the silk industry that it is disadvantageous tostretch silk as it is being cleaned and wound, since stretched silk willnot take the dye properly and is in other ways inferior.

It will be understood that the cleaner plates will be formed with slotsof various sizes therein, according to the size of the thread that is tobe cleaned, and by my method I am able to make the slot in the plates assmall as a of an inch, or as large as necessary for the larger sizes ofthreads to be'cleaned. The cleaner plate 1 may be removed by taking outthe screw 16, and may be replaced by other plates having the desiredwidth of slot.

The fiat bracket 25 shown in Fig. 7, differs from the bracket 10 of Fig.1 in that it isadapted to be attached to a flat surface of a beam orother part of the winding machine, instead of to a rod 21. The bracketis provided with two outstanding arms or wings which have screw holesdrilled therein for the reception of attaching screws.

It is obvious that various changes in the details and arrangementsherein described and illustrated may be made by those skilled in the artwithin the principle and scope of my invention.

I claim:

1. A thread cleaner comprising an integral flat plate of treatmenthardened steel substantially of an inch in thickness hav ing an openended narrow slot therein the walls of which meet the face of the platetoward which the thread is moved at sharp right angles.

2. A thread cleaner comprising an integral flat plate of treatmenthardened steel substantially e of an inch in thickness having an openended narrow slot therein the walls of which meet the face of the platetoward which the thread is moved at sharp right angles and whichterminates at its inner end in a clearance hole of adiametersubstantially greater than the Width of the slot, and havingconverging guide faces leading to the open end of the slot disposed atsubstantially 45 to the respective wall of the slot.

-3. A thread cleaner comprising a bracket member having in one armprovision for attachment of the member to a support and in the other arma positioning channel, a cleaning plate disposed in said channel, apin-on said member for limiting movement of the plate in one directionin the channel, and a screw passing throu h the plate and threaded intothe member for clamping the plate to the member.

45. A thread cleaner comprising a bracket member having in one armprovision for attachment of the member to a support and in the other arma clearance passage .and an open channel in its face, a cleaning platehaving therein a cleaning slotand dlsposed in said channel with its slotinalignment with the passage of the member, and a screw for clamping theplate within the channel.

5. A thread cleaner comprising a supporting member arranged to beattached to a winding machine or the like, two spaced thread guidesattached to the supporting member with their guide openings inalignment, an angle bracket member having in one arm a clearance passageand an open channel in its face, a cleaning plate having therein acleaning slit and secured in sa1d channel with its slot opposing theclearance passage in said arm, and means'securing the other arm of theangle-bracket member to the supporting member between the two threadguides with the slot aligned with the guide openings of the threadguide.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my signature.

\ WALTER .J. KLOTS.

